18 December 2011

Okay, it was just one of those random thoughts that passed by. Along with the other one over game time about to become rather spotty and random between 20-Dec and 3-Jan. Hurumph...the nerve of rl people interupting my realities. Azeroth needs it's heros! Speaking of which...

Aygaren, now in his late thirty-somethings, has no fear of jumping into the frays inside Grommosh Hold. After all, he can fling a mean shield along with a few hammers. And it's not because he cares all that much for Garrosh. He just has this bone to pick with the Alliance, who seem to like raiding Grommosh Hold on a frequent basis.

At thirty-something, Aygaren can't really do a lot of damage to level capped pvp raiders. In fact, most of his shots tend to miss and do nothing at all. He would probably do more good switching specs in such cases and passing out light weight heals on fellow defenders. But no. He's a 'wanna-be-a-tank' pally and insists on fighting the best he can. So all in all, he was really surprised when in the middle of tossing shields about, this came up:

Yep. One purely magical moment when a shield actually found it's mark at just the right millasecond to send a level capped Ally to his maker. Be it magic, RNG good fortune or whatever, Aygaren enjoyed his moment of celebration. Moving along now. (wish I was quicker with the screenshot button, lol)

I recall back when, sort of, when I saw my first mechanochopper in the game. Stopping stone cold on the spot, I looked at this thing in total amazement and awe. Wondering to self, "Self-what is this world coming to?" The amazement lasted about 10 seconds I think. Then the level capped owner dismounted and proceeded to one-shot me. Then came the rocket ships, and pink ones to boot. And let's not forget the Sparkle Ponies flitting about. Someone actually paid real money for that!?! I just shook my head and went about my Azerothian business.

All the Brothers in Arms now have their first mounts, very glad to give their tired feet or hooves a much needed rest. Aygaren don't particulary care for Belfs, but has become tolerant of one who happens to be his class trainer in Org. Tolerant because, the Belf granted him both riding and a great looking Kodo mount for less than 1 gold piece! Such a deal. Really!

Gizzel has hopped on the motorized mount wagon. Yep, he got his first Trike, and actually loves tooling around in it.

Birzak got his raptor, a rather expensive venture. Oh, he mentioned that he was a little too busy for picture taking that day.

And Gandom came into a wolf, for a moderate fee of coarse.

Gandom also has a new companion! Such a happy little thing she is. Although, she does tend to randomly stop in mid-stride, or mob fight, to cross over into some sort of realm of oblivion. At least she does manage to catch up rather quickly when her reality snaps back in.

Last but not least, there's Bossy. How the heck she got herself in some out of the way upstairs room unable to get down the stairs, is just pure mystery. And she's not speaking of how or why.

Okay, one for the road: Gandom came across this friendly little fella whilist flower picking in the snow.

10 December 2011

Everything has been kinda quiet around here, to some dismay. I've been at battle with some sort of corrupting force within a persistant ear infection of sorts. Needless to say I guess, it's put quite a damper on my game time/enjoyment, and keeping up with the blog and community. As with all things, I'm fairly sure it's time will pass, eventually.

Sol's Travel Journel: The Great Horde Project - It's been, different, to say the least. Trying to break from years of certain game play styles, to set forth into new areas and roads never traveled before has seen some challenges. Making progress in overcoming these challenges is slow going, but making headway.

The desire to keep going off in so many different directions needed to be reined in, and focus set on just a couple of goals in hopes of attaining some moderate success. Server choices are now pretty much settled on just one, with two strays over on another. The line-up of new kids is set now as well.

On our "main" horde active server, we have a four-man crew tenitively referred to as "brothers-in-arms." The birth and leveling order saw some changes. Who came first, is now second. While who came fourth is now third. Go figure. The speed at which new characters level now certainly plays a part in this, although I also see some play in the chosen classes as well. Anyway, here's the main team intros and a short word or two about each.

Aygaren--Tauren Paladin: currently level 33 with blacksmithing and mining as main professions. I had actually 'grounded' him earlier this week for leveling way too fast and not getting into any dungeons as yet. His main purpose in life is to learn how to tank. We've had discussions about this. Aygaren feels somewhat ready, but I have this overt dislike for pugging in the dungeon tool. He's been advised to find a suitable guild to run and learn with. So far, he's come up empty handed.

Birzak--Troll BM Hunter: sitting at level 28 with leatherworking and skinning professions. This really wasn't a difficult choice. Khrox has had some fairly good success as a BM, so I expect that Birzak will do at least as well, if not better. Personally, I've got copper coins on Birzak doing better.

Gizzel--Goblin BM Hunter: Level 15. Why two hunters? Just an easy choice to be honest. The project had a lot to do with seeing the story and lore from Horde eyes. I'm not crazy about Goblins. Several have tried and failed in the past. So, I really wanted Gizzel to succeed for two reasons. The Goblin viewpoint and Goblin engineering. Somehow, I expected that the hunter class would make it all worth the effort.

Gandom--Orc Mage: Level 13. Gandom rounds out the team pretty well. Along with his frost magic, he's acquired tailoring and skinning skills. Perhaps not the best combination, but helpful in supporting himself as the others have had to learn how to do. Here again, the mage class is fairly familar to work with so at least moderate success is expected.

These 'brothers-in-arms' spent most of the past week goofing off at the Darkmoon Faire. Each one accumulated various achievements. Aygaren faired the best though, with both the Sea Pony companion and a dungeon artifact from going solo on Ragefire Chasm to his credit. Next week will see them getting back to the journeys at hand. At least until Winter Veil sets in on Azeroth.

More about IntPiPoMo: A little earlier this week I was treated to a final installment of this challenge over at Bag Overflow. A totally awesome video was offered up to assist in completing the challenge, which imho, is well deserving and a must see! Grats to Bag Overflow for such a fantastic and unique ending to their IntPiPoMo participation.

Okay, a small personal thought here. Today, as I was going through my reader, I came across another long time blogger I've been reading for I can't remember how long. The post was about stepping back now to favor and give more attention to real life. This is a good thing for this blogger, or any blogger who makes this choice. I'm sure everyone commends and supports, "family/real life, comes first."

I now return you to killing those internet dragons, and other such stuff. :)

Ending this morning's round-up on another happy note, let me ask you, "Who else can talk about having so much !#%& fun in game with such a unique and straight-forward style, as Big Bear Butt delivers? Maybe a few, idk. But I always enjoy reading BBB.

That's it for this mornings little round-up. Time for me to go work through some thoughts over Aygaren, that wanna-be-a-tank Tauren pally. Enjoy your game! ~Sol

04 December 2011

The new Darkmoon Faire opened up today...YAY!! All the kids were clamoring to go, as expected. Not everyone was able to make the journey though.
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Coming into the Faire

Although several of the kids were able to make the journey today, none came away with as much happiness as Aygaren. At level 23, he really didn't expect too much this month. Oh, btw...Aygaren is part of the Great Horde Project, a Tauren Prot Pally.
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Aygaren

Aygaren has been enjoying questing for the most part, and finally settled on blacksmithing and mining for his trades.﻿ He's made his way through Mulgore, a bit of Durotar and Ashenvale. His current romp is in Stonetalon.

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The Sunfury River boat ride

Today though he traveled to the DMF. Found himself some quests for fishing and cooking which up'ed his skill levels quite a bit. And for only one (1) ticket, he came across a 14-slot DMF bag!! This was pure treasure for him, having only 6 and 8 slots all this time.

Then, while doing the little fishing quest at DMF, he heard someone shout with glee over catching the Sea Pony pet. There were a lot of people fishing while he was there, and he had heard about how rare this was supposed to be. Aygaren contented himself to just a 10-minute fishing shot for the quest catch. When he turned in the fish to the vendor, he found quite a surprise in his bag he didn't even notice during the fishing time.
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The Sea Pony Surprise!!!

Yep, little bitty Aygaren was the only one of the kids today who walked away with the biggest, goofyest smile on his face. He was so happy, he even splurged on some fireworks to celebrate.

03 December 2011

Like the post title says, this is a rumble, (it's very early morn here and my tummy hasn't had it's dose of coffee just yet), grumble, (ah-cause I just might grumble *rant* a bit), and in keeping with Blizzards move to balance everything, I'll supply some pics to balance out the aforementioned rumble-grumbles.

The eagerly awaited 4.3 patch is live. There's been a healthy dose of reactions over it around the community, mostly from the pve raiders perspective. Leading up to this, there's been plenty of amazing vids to watch as well. All well and good. I'm quite happy for everyone who's able to raid, and experience this portion of end-game. Okay, long time readers have already guessed the next part.

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Khrox enjoying IF.

﻿﻿ I am both jealous and saddened that I have yet to raise up a viable raider. Sol never did quite make the cut and semi-retired himself to parts unknown. Khrox blasted his way to 85 through quests and late life bg's. He's fully pvp geared with no dungeon experience worth a hoot. He opened up his LFR toolbox. It told him he didn't have the qualifacations to use it. Kaimara is currently pvp geared with very little bg experience. She has some minor pve dungeon experience, but alas, no where near achieving entry raid level. Yet another end of expansion big baddie raid available, and here my alter-selves sit, twiddleing their thumbs. Tapping fingers on the desk asking me "WHY?" "Why haven't you got us THERE yet?" It's just like kids, always wanting more. And I haven't quite been able to give them the world, as much as I would like to.

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Kaimara

﻿ It is this part of end-game which constantly haunts me. It is also one of the several reasons for the birth of The Great Horde Project. This is an open-ended self project I started a few weeks ago. I may have mentioned it a time or two here. It began rather simplistically minded, experience the lore and story from the other side of the fence through the eyes of various races within the faction. It's been great. Each character thus far has provided experiences greatly appreciated by the button masher.

It was all good through level 12, then some difficulties started to rise. They suddenly became Hellscreams' minions, fighting his war, like it or not. Then there's the part where they're really all alone traveling through this new world. Traveling expenses became an issue, along with training fees to survive in Hellscreams' War. You get the picture. No sugar-daddys, no heirlooms, it's survival one day at a time. Can you remember those times from way back when? Although the project birthed itself on several likely servers, it is now apparently focused on one realm. I gather these kids, have decided to it home.

﻿ It's AB battleground weekend. I love AB. Birzak was level 19, he que'd for AB. It told him he should probably expect to wait at least 10 minutes and probably more. Birzak dropped from que. Did I mention that the crew is on a PvE server? Obviously, bg's aren't going to be much help. /facepalm Well, I really need to concentrate on the main goal. Focus button-masher, FOCUS! There's two hunters, a mage, and a wanna-be tank pally. Get with the program kids. Dungeons. You want DUNGEONS! Jump in and go for it. Ignor the chat box and all the pve jerk-twads. Just get in now while you're still young enough to grow in these ways. Maybe by the time the Panda's arrive, you'll finally be ready. BTW- I'm lousy terri-bad at melee. Always been a ranged caster. The wanna-be pally tank is going to be a real challenge.
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Gizzel-goblin hunter

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Gandom-Orc mage

Have fun in game everyone! LOL, in spite of momentary doldrum attacks, I am. And beware Alliance! The goys are off to dungeons for now, but the day will come, your reckoning will be at hand. MAWHAHAHAHA!!!!